About Us.
Attention to Details for More Than 30 Years
Performance Fasteners (PF), originally “Performance Engineering,” started with Oklahoma-native Jim Tolson in the 1980s. Tolson’s interest began at an early age for cars, motorcycles, or anything that had the possibility of going faster. That love for the automotive industry eventually led him to founding PF.
In the early ’80s, Tolson had an industrial machine shop. He also had a drag boat and wanted to dress up the engine, so he decided to make washers for the Allen bolts. What resulted was what we now know as cup washers.
The hand-milled parts served two purposes: they widened the holding surface of the Allen bolt, and of course acted as a washer. “My boat and trailer were blue, so I sent the parts I’d made off to the plater to have them anodized to match,” Tolson recalled. “When I got those parts back, I really got excited, because I knew that I had hit on something special,” he added.
It seemed that most everyone who saw the boat wanted some for their own projects. Jim started out making hundreds at a time and then went to thousands within weeks. He was off and running. What started out as a fun idea for himself turned into a company supplying hundreds of speed shops throughout the country within months.
The new business took off with incredible speed. “One day, my dad, who was one of the most practical men I’ve ever known, and certainly not a car guy, walked into the shop,” Tolson recalled. “He walked around and talked to all the guys, and kept picking up the different parts and looking everything over. He finally came over to me. He gave me a big ole hug, and he said, son, I’m so proud of you and what you’ve accomplished here…but I gotta tell you. I don’t know one person who would buy any of this s#!&!!,” he said with a laugh. Although Tolson’s father has since passed, the laugh they shared that day remains one of the best memories of his life, but illustrates the point: it really does take a gear head to “get” the PF difference!
Years later, after years of retirement, Tolson realized that the interest he had as a young man was still as strong as ever. Tolson and wife Janie still frequented local car shows, and they never failed to run into a lot of the same old crowd. What they noticed was that many were still running Performance Fasteners parts on their cars.
In July 2018, the Tolsons decided to retire for good and longtime PF fan and customer Toby Brooks purchased the company. Brooks has high hopes of returning PF to the must-have detailing accessory brand for underhood fasteners and billet parts that it once was in the ’80s. “I’ve loved this stuff since I was a kid,” Brooks said. “It is surreal to think that now a couple of decades later I get the chance to lead PF into the future. It’s an exciting time,” he concluded.